Photos: Exotic birds at the pier

Exotic birds do some people-watching. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

March 16, 2015 3:55 AM PT

Santa Monica’s Palisades Park is a destination for exotic-bird handlers as well as for tourists.

Visiting college student Sara Kipin of Pittsburgh gets an affectionate peck from a cockatoo. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Alex Hurtado spritzes red parrots and white cockatoos with water to keep them cool. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Howard Kaminsky photographs Jack and Archibald Cobb as they hold two of the birds he brings from Oxnard. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Tourists walk past the tricked-out tricycle belonging to the “Bird Man of Santa Monica,” Howard Kaminsky. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Alex Hurtado gets a kiss from a parrot. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Tourist Undral Nyamosor of Mongolia doesn’t mind being part of Howard Kaminsky’s display. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Sara Kipin lets herself become a perch. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Goldie the macaw makes a new friend. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)